RENTON, Wash. — Derrick Coleman might be new to the national spotlight, but the first legally deaf offensive player in NFL history has been inspiring his teammates and coaches all season.

It didn’t take a dramatic national TV commercial or a touching exchange of letters with a 9-year-old deaf girl for the Seahawks to realize they have something special in their midst in the form of Coleman, Seattle’s first-year fullback.

Though the former undrafted free agent from UCLA is just an occasional starter, Coleman is a full-time positive influence on the Super Bowl XLVIII-bound Seahawks.

“He doesn’t want that to be a reason for him to feel like he’s different,” running backs coach Sherman Smith said last week. “He doesn’t want to be different. He’s an inspiration to me and to a lot of people. We’re blessed to have Derrick on our team.”

Coleman — who was born able to hear but, for reasons that are a mystery to this day, went deaf 20 years ago at age 3 — isn’t a mystery to NFL fans outside Seattle anymore, after starring in and narrating a commercial for Duracell batteries that debuted this month telling his life story.

A Coleman-inspired story also went viral last week, when a 9-year-old hearing impaired girl from Roxbury, N.J., wrote a letter to Coleman telling him that he was her “insperation” and that she had “faif” in him because they both wore hearing aids.

Coleman wrote back to Riley Kovalcik the next day, telling her how much he appreciated the note, encouraging her to follow her dreams and inviting her and her hearing-impaired twin sister to a play date if they were ever in Seattle.

Coleman still was emotional about the exchange later in the week.

“I get quite a few letters, and I read them, but that one really got to me,” Coleman said. “I was very emotional after reading it. It was short, quick and to the point, and that was the best part.”

But Coleman, who was on the Seahawks’ practice squad last year before making the roster in training camp, isn’t just a mascot for Seattle in its quest to topple Peyton Manning and the Broncos at MetLife Stadium and bring the Lombardi Trophy home for the first time in team history.

With Coleman appearing in 12 games (starting three of them) in the Seahawks’ run-first offense, Marshawn Lynch was able to rush for 1,257 yards and a career-high 12 touchdowns in the regular season.

Coleman also helped pave the way for Lynch to rush for 140 yards and two TDs on 28 carries in a divisional-round playoff win over the Saints before being limited to a special-teams role in last week’s victory against the 49ers in the NFC Championship.

Other than not being able to truly enjoy the Seahawks’ famed “12th Man” sound advantage during home games, Coleman said his deafness actually has been an aid to his football career instead of a hindrance.

“It doesn’t affect me at all,” he said. “What it does is make me work harder at everything I do. Being deaf had made me put a lot more effort and attention to detail in everything I do, and that’s gotten me to where I am now.”

Coleman’s teammates have taken notice.

“There’s a lot of respect and admiration for Derrick in this locker room,” cornerback Richard Sherman said. “We don’t look at him as handicapped at all. He’s just a football player and a great guy.”

Coleman hopes his story has the same impact on everyone else.

“It feels really good to be a role model,” he said. “I’ve really started talking to kids, just in case they don’t have anybody to look up to or have the support system that I was lucky to have.

“I just want them to know I’m out there and I’ve achieved my dreams and my goals, and that they can do the same thing regardless of whatever obstacles they have to overcome.”